On 27 May, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) had a constructive meeting with Silvia Costa, the Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Culture and Education (CULT). Silvia Costa (S&D, Italy) who had signed the EFJ Manifesto, reiterated her strong support for its principles outlined and showed readiness to stand-up for them.

As former journalist, Costa discussed with great interest on the various issues: how to improve media ownership transparency, media literacy, training for journalists, authors’ rights, new financial models and start-ups for journalists — all within the changing media landscape and its impact on journalists’ work as a result of digitisation, convergence and financial constraints.

Silvia Costa and the EFJ agreed to organise in early 2016 a seminar on journalism within the framework of the digital agenda. The seminar shall discuss new challenges within new digital networks for journalists, as well as the question of how to improve quality in European reporting and to maintain or achieve public interest journalism throughout Europe.